How Self-Control Can Improve Your Life

Rebecca Lewis November 08, 2013

What if you can easily choose an apple over a slice of cake, a walk in the park over an extra hour in bed, and a laugh over anger? Many people don’t realise it but self-control has a very important role to play in eliminating bad habits, keeping a healthy lifestyle, and achieving a more satisfying life.

What is Self-Control?

When Martin Seligman, the founder of positive psychology, and his colleagues from the University of Pennsylvania surveyed two million people and asked them to rank their strengths in various skills, self-control was among those found in the bottom list. Most experts agree that self-control is a vital component of emotional intelligence and is a contributing factor in happiness and well-being.

But what is self-control? In psychology, it is defined as the ability to control one’s emotions, behaviour, and desires in order to obtain some reward, or avoid some punishment. Thanks to our ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), we have this very powerful skill that separates us from other species in the animal kingdom. The prefrontal cortex is the part of the brain that lies behind our forehead and eyes. It is known to be responsible for controlling physical movements. But over time it got bigger and took on some more functions. Now, this brain region is responsible for controlling what we do, think, and feel.

Roy Baumeister, Professor of Psychology at Florida State University, conducted many experiments in which he asked participants to use their willpower in a laboratory environment, such as dip hands in icy cold water, turn down biscuits, and control anger. He found that the type of activity didn’t matter – people who used their willpower experienced a decrease in their ability to control themselves. This led Baumeister to conclude that willpower is a finite source that gets depleted when we use it. Nevertheless, more recent studies, like that of Stanford University, suggest that willpower is a finite source only when we believe it.

Benefits of Self-Control

So in what ways self-control help improve your life?

It makes you happier. Just because you choose not to drink more than a glass of beer doesn’t mean you are a boring killjoy. One study carried out by Wilhelm Hofmann found that people with self-control are happier because it helps them deal better with goal conflict. They are also more likely to make the right choice, which in turn makes them happier. As a result, they get higher grades in school, earn more money, and have better mental and physical health and so on.

It makes you more honest. Another study, published in the 2013 issue of the journal Deviant Behaviour, which involved 1,600 adolescents at a school in the US who were asked whether they used a drug called ‘clorovisen’, which was actually a non-existing drug. In this study, researchers found that people with low self-control succumb to the temptation more easily even if they will gain nothing out of it.

It helps you establish good habits and eliminate bad ones. This is the perhaps the most obvious benefit of self-control. 2013 Research Chou et al found that people who concentrated on why they were quitting smoking managed to smoke fewer cigarettes. That’s because this exercise boosted their willpower. Most likely, this theory applies to other habits.

It enhances mental focus. Another 2013 study published in the journal Emotion found that participants with low self-control were more distracted by negative thoughts and performed worse in the task. Scientists from the McMaster University, Hamilton, found similar results. In their study, people with depleted self-control were less accurate and less consistent at throwing darts.

It strengthens your trust on your partner. The rate of snooping was lower among people with high self-control, according to the 2013 study appearing in the Journal of Family Psychology.

We are all endowed with a very special skill called self-control. By cultivating and practising it daily, we can improve the quality of our life and health.